Too Little, Too Late, Harvard Is Told About Its Response to Antisemitism Claims
https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-too-little-too-late-harvard?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
After months of negotiations, the Trump administration tells Harvard that it could face a civil-rights lawsuit.
Harvard may now face litigation from the Justice Department for alleged antisemitic harassment. After concluding that Harvard would not voluntarily comply with civil-rights law, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday referred its investigation to the Justice Department, according to a letter sent to Harvard president Alan Garber.
On June 30, the Office of Civil Rights at HHS found Harvard in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs. Both before and after that finding, the government engaged in “extensive communications with Harvard about the steps needed to address antisemitism on its campus,” according to today’s letter.
“Rather than voluntarily comply with its obligations under Title VI, Harvard has chosen scorched-earth litigation against the Federal government,” wrote Paula M. Stannard, the director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights. “The parties’ several months’ engagement has been fruitless.”
An HHS official told The Free Press that since the matter is now also in the Justice Department’s hands, a court could order penalties beyond the suspension of future funds. These could include a “consent decree or injunction” that would force Harvard to enforce its own policies on discrimination, harassment, and protest.
The June 30 notice of violation contains over 50 pages documenting alleged discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students at Harvard, much of which was sourced from the school’s own antisemitism report. The notice covers student-on-student harassment, including chants of “Heil Hitler” as well as harassment by faculty members and the exclusion of Jewish students from campus spaces. Harvard was slow to discipline rule-breakers, and awarded some of them fellowships and honors.
In the notice, the Office of Civil Rights said it would “persuade Harvard to take appropriate corrective action, including through submission of a voluntary resolution agreement” and warned that they already had “ample grounds” to refer the matter to the Justice Department.
Typically, civil-rights disputes between government agencies and institutions like Harvard are settled voluntarily. Last week, Columbia University and several federal agencies announced a $221 million settlement that included a $21 million fund for Jewish employees. Harvard was reportedly willing to spend up to $500 million to settle.
Harvard is “an example of what happens when an entity gets to a point of not being able to assure the federal government that it’s going to comply with the law,” the HHS official said.
“Our message to other universities is they better comply with the law as understood by the Trump administration and comply with our demands,” the official said. “Otherwise, we will use every tool in our toolkit to come after these universities.”
After it was found in violation of Title VI, Harvard said it was “far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government’s findings.” They added that the university has “made significant strides to combat bigotry, hate, and bias.”
Comments are closed.
